The present disclosure generally relates to an assembly for use in surgical procedures. In particular, a surgical assembly and a system comprising the surgical assembly are described.
When treating a bone fracture, bone fragments are typically aligned in a first step using, for example, a bone plate. The aligned bone fragments may then be tightened together by one or more surgical cables. To prevent sections of the one or more surgical cables from interfering with, for example, surgical instruments, a surgical assembly may be used to hold together the cable sections.
A conventional surgical assembly for this purpose comprises a C-shaped clamp with two clamping arms and a screw that is to be captively held by the clamp (see also FIGS. 1a to 1c). The clamp has two coaxial threaded holes through its two arms. The screw is provided a cylindrical portion, a head at one end and a threaded portion at the other end.
In order to open the assembly for introducing cable sections, the screw needs to be unscrewed from the threaded lower hole so as to open a clearance between the two arms of the clamp. After screwing the screw again into the lower hole until its head abuts against the clamp, the clamp can be compressed by further screwing so that cable sections can be firmly held together.
The conventional assembly is bulky and requires a substantial space in the longitudinal direction of the screw. In order to overcome this drawback, the clearance of the clamp may be reduced. This in turn requires the threaded portion of the screw to be at least partly engaged with the threaded upper hole of the clamp in order for the clamping assembly to adopt the open position. As a consequence, a further drawback appears since the screw may unintentionally disengage from the assembly by movements or vibrations.